Departure the 7th of January, slowly getting things ready and packing the very last gears!
We wish you all a happy new year and looking forward to seeing you on the road or hearing from you on the blog!
C & C
]]>Since Cédric’s update from Tournus, we’ve managed to put a few more miles on our bike.
On Friday, Cédric and I hit the road early to make sure that we could get into Lyon at a reasonable time. The plan was to visit Cédric’s childhood friend, Olivier. This day we followed the Saône river, which was nice until we approached France’s second largest city. There, we had to fight against rush hour traffic and not-so-bike-friendly roads.
Saturday, Olivier and his girlfriend joined us to travel to Tournon-sur-Rhône. After taking some oddly designated bike paths (trees in the middle, fences, and some with only a few inches/centimeters to pass through), we finally reached the Via Rhôna bikeway, which should take us down to the Mediterranean (granted that the paths are completed, which most aren’t). On the way, we passed through some nice medieval towns and old fortresses. Tournon-sur-Rhône was a picturesque town with a large castle in the middle of it… and a nice campsite directly downtown.
Yesterday, Sunday, Cédric and I bid adieu to Olivier and his girlfriend and started down the Rhône river again. Our day was comprised mostly of biking in the hot sun. However, early in the morning, we stopped in the Valance market to pick up food for the day. As we approached the Mediterranean Sea, crops changed from corn and wheat to grapes and fruit orchards. The climate also became more day. Last night, we slept at a campground near St.-Just-d’Ardeche… arriving with just enough time to hop in the pool.
Today, we had no bike path to follow and tried to stay on small, local roads. These roads took us up some very large hills and all through small villages. Instead of following the river, we decided to cut a few miles/kilometers and biked the most direct route to Gallician. This left us with some time to enjoy a nice birthday lunch and taste the wine of the region. Biking in this area, we can only see endless vineyards. From afar, the hills look like they’re green and covered with meadows, but upon closer inspection, everything has been cultivated for wine. Our day ended with another pitcher of local wine and a swim in the campsite’s pool.
Tomorrow, we’re following the Via Rhôna to Sete and beyond (today’s route was still in the ‘planning,’ or ‘we don’t want to spend the money on bike lanes’ phase, which seems ridiculous as the Gard region would be literally the only gap between the Mediterranean sea and Budapest – and beyond).
Cheers, Cassie and Cédric
Cela fait donc maintenant trois jours que nous sommes sur la route. Notre objectif est de joindre Bale à la frontière suisse, à Toulouse. Seule contrainte : on a 10 jours maxi pour 1100km minimum !
Départ donc mardi matin de Augsburg à 5h30 – quasi pas dormi la nuit précédente et la tête dans le cul. 6h de train avec un classique pourrissage par les contrôleurs de la deutsche bahn – on ne sais jamais pourquoi mais des que quelques chose change dans leur train-train (!) de poinçonneur le Helmut du jour crise…a chaque fois pareil donc on ignore.
Départ officiel de basel à 13h, direction Belfort et le haut Rhin puis rapidement le Doubs et Montbéliard. C’est vallonné mais on fini après 5h de vélo et 105km à l’Isle-sur-le-doubs. Petit passage au supermarché ou j’achète carrément trop de fromage – particulièrement en roulant par 30c +, et on s’écroule de fatigue.
Mercredi est facile puisque la journée consiste à suivre la piste cyclable eurovelo 6. Une véritable autoroute du vélo de nantes à la mer noire en Bulgarie. Bon seul soucis est que google maps deconne sérieux et les 100km deviennent 127km…un Coca-Cola nous fait tenir et on finit après plus de 6h de roulage à Dole en camping – avec piscine! Parfait.
Aujourd’hui on continu notre chemin mais en quittant la EV6, direction sud vers Tournus pour rejoindre Olivier le lendemain à Lyon. Grosse journée à nouveau surtout qu’on a eu un bon vent de face tout le long, et quitter l’eurovelo signifie guidage, collines, routes avec feux et traffic, etc. Bon pour le trafic le jura et la saone et loir c’est un peu désert. Mais belles campagnes. Et puis on alterne entre chocolatine et coca-cola pour finir la journée. En tout cas grande chance avec le soleil depuis le début !
Bon, c’est l’heure de la pizza au camping de Tournus !
Tchô, Cédric et Cassie
The bike tour to Venice went by extraordinary quicky… as Cédric and I were looking over videos and pictures from our trip today, I found hard to believe that the 670 km (415 miles) and crossing the Alps was finished within 7 days.
The first day from Augsburg to Füssen was a ride where everyone realized that this trip is actually taking place. After we finished the first 50km (30mi), the mountains of the Alps appeared and continuously got closer throughout the rest of the day. At this point, the route also became more hilly and challenging.
Day two, from Füssen to Imst, will probably be remembered as our most difficult day. This was the day where we had to climb several hundred kilometers/miles with our bikes on poorly marked routes. As we got closer to the Fernpass, the highest point of the day, the bike route gave way to a steep mountain biking trail, so we had to finish riding on the road with cars.
The third day ended in another mountain pass, the Reschenpass. where we crossed the borders from Austria to Switzerland to Austria to Italy. This day was the beginning of some really enjoyable paved bike paths that took us through small towns and remained mostly in the Inn valley. Only towards the end did we need to take a winding, steep road up to the Italian border.
The next two days were spent riding from Reschen to Levico in the Adige valley. From this day on, we were rewarded for the tough start by an ever-so-slight decent. When the bike paths were straight and unobstructed, we could get our heavy bikes to reach over 30kmh (20 mph). Once we passed the city of Bozen, the villages also became more Italian-looking, with old stuccoed buildings.
The day from Levico to Montebelluna was our last day in the Alps. This was another day of paved bike paths, but this time down the Brenta valley. Once we reached Bassano at the foot of the Italian Alps, we had the feeling that the trip was soon coming to an end- less than 100 km /mi separated us from Venice.
Venice itself was a lovely city, full of tourists, but if you turned down a few side alleys, you could still find yourself alone in a small square. Cédric and I spent two days in Venice after the bike trip to see some of the historic land marks and check our the island of Murano, where the famous Murano glass is produced.
We both had a wonderful trip and are looking forward to hitting the road again next week. but this time from Basel to Toulouse.
